With Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Blitz
"Sigh..."
"Sigh..."
Rainbow Dash glanced at Rainbow Blitz as he released a sigh of his own. Both of the cyan pegasi were now flying around lazily the forest with no direction in their minds, completely forgetting about their task of finding the princess.
It was only a few minutes later when...
"Sigh..."
"Sigh..."
Rainbow Dash's eye twitched as she glared at Blitz. Blitz, sensing he was stared at, glanced at Rainbow Dash questioningly.
"Stop that" Rainbow Dash said after a light glaring contest with her counterpart.
Blitz raised an eyebrow. "Stop what?"
Rainbow Dash groaned. "Stop following what I do." she said with gritted teeth. She scratched her knee.
Blitz furrowed his eyebrows "I'm not." He scratched his knee.
"There! You're doing it again! Stop that!" Dash shouted.
"Stop what?! Could you be quiet?! You're so loud!" Blitz shouted back.
"Not as loud as you!"
"No, you're louder!"
"No, you!"
"You!"
"I think it would be best if both of you shut your mouth before I make them" said a third calm voice behind them.
Both pegasi blinked at each other before turning around and came face to face with a brown pegasus with a yellow mane, pointing some sort kind of thingamajig at them. They couldn't see his cutie mark since he was wearing some kind of armor.
"Oh yeah?" Blitz snorted. "Are you going to make me? With what? That?" Blitz laughed, thinking that his joke was funny.
The brown pegasus narrowed his eyes before pointing the strange device on a tree and pulled the trigger. Laser came out of it and sliced the tree in half like it was paper. The tree fell down with a crash and animals scattered around from the impact. The brown pegasus then focused his gaze back at Blitz with the strange contraption pointing at the cyan stallion's head.
Blitz visibly paled as he raised his hooves above his head in surrender. He nervously chuckled as sweat dripped from his forehead "Ohhh... That[/i! Why didn't you say earlier?" he then turned to Rainbow Dash and whispered "Psst... what are you doing?"
Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow "What?" she whispered back "I wasn't the one making fun of him, was I?"
Blitz just glared at her before turning back to the stallion with an apologetic look on his face.
The brown pegasus noticed the mare wasn't following the stallion's actions so he turned his gun at her. He was about to order the mare to cease and desist when his eyes widened and his mouth fell open.
"C-c-commander Rush?!" the brown pegasus shook his head vigorously before he straightened his body and raise his right hoof to a salute and lowering the strange device "Sir, it is an honor to see you alive, sir!"
Rainbow Dash blinked. She turned towards Rainbow Blitz with a questioning gaze but she was answered with a shrug while the rainbow maned stallion still had his hooves in the air. Rainbow Dash turned back towards the brown pegasus and noticed that he still didn't move from his previous position.
It was then Rainbow Dash realized that he was waiting for her command. Years in learning the ways of the wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash knew how to respond to the saluting stallion.
"Uhmm... At ease...?"
Sort of.
The stallion continued to salute as he started to talk, more like shout, towards the confused cyan mare. "Sir, permission to speak freely, sir!"
Rainbow Dash thought hard about how to respond when she finally remembered "Permission granted."
The stallion finally removed his hand from his head before speaking normally again "Sir, it is my understanding that two years ago you were captured during a skirmish near Ponytopolis along with the other two remaining Elements of Justice! May I inquire in how you escaped, sir?" He said with no hesitance in his voice.
Rainbow Dashed blinked again. Ponytopolis? Captured? Elements of Justice?! This was the part where the brown pegasus completely lost Rainbow Dash.
Rainbow Dash scratched the back of her neck "Uhmm... Believe it or not, I have no idea what the hay you're talking about. The thing is... I'm actually not from here and all those things you just said have nothing to with me."
The brown pegasus tilted his head in confusion "Here? What do you mean?" He shook his head again before glaring ahead. "I mean, Commander Rush sir, can you please elaborate, sir!"
Rainbow Dash waves her hooves around "Can we stop with this sir stuff for a sec! And who is this Commander Rush pony and why do you keep calling me that?"
This time, the brown pegasus carefully stared at Rainbow Dash before his eyes widened in realization. "You're right... Now that I look closely, you're too young to be Commander Rush... but that can't be right." He paced back and forth. "You look like her, sound like her, and, help the divines, you have the same color scheme for your mane, and tail! How can you not be her?!" he said while pointing a hoof at her but he stopped abruptly when he finally noticed her cutie mark "Although your cutie marks are different from each other. Far different actually..."
Rainbow Dash shrugged "Simple. I don't remember enlisting in the army."
The brown pegasus would've asked more questions but he was cut off by a squawk from above. The three pegasi looked up and made the brown one pale at the sight. Griffins were circling around them.
Rainbow Dash squinted her eyes. There was something odd about those griffins. It was only a minute later did she realized what.
All of them had black feathers. Normally, they would be hard to see at a moonless night but being the sky as red as blood, they were as clear a black stain in a white room. When one of them flew near, Rainbow instantly noticed it's eyes. They were as red as the night sky. It's beak and talons were sharpen to the point that Rainbow Dash winced in the idea of being grazed by them. Lastly, it was wearing some sort of silver armor. Unlike the machine pony they faced, the griffin was actually wearing the armor and was not part of it.
Silence enveloped the area as the pegasi were waiting for the griffins to make their move. The tension was high as the brown pegasus was gripping his gun tightly. He gritted his teeth in frustration. They were clearly outnumbered by ten to one. He looked around the forest slowly, not wanting to get the griffins' attention. He was looking for a place for them to hide or for him to call for reinforcements. All he needed was a few minutes. His eyes widened when he saw a familiar structure in the distance.
"Psst... Hey, you two." He whispered. The two cyan pegasi perked their ears. He smiled at that. That meant that they knew that the situation was dire. "See that building over there? On my signal, I want you two to bolt towards that direction as fast as you can. Don't look back. No matter what you hear, don't stop and just keep going. Understand?"
The two cyan pegasi subtlety nodded their heads as they looked at the tower. Both of them knew that trusting the pegasus with the strange device was a bad idea but waiting for the armor wearing, black feathered, red eyed griffins was worse.
"Ready? GO!" in a blink of an eye, he raised his gun and fired at the closest griffin his eyes caught. It was a clear shot and the griffin fell to it's death. That did the trick since all the circling griffins started dive bombing at him.
Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Blitz quickly followed the other pegasus' orders and flew as fast as they could towards the tower. They could hear flapping wings catching up to them and they didn't know whether it was the brown pegasus or the griffins and they didn't plan on finding out. They didn't plan on creating a rainboom because it risked in also hitting their ally. When they were close enough, Rainbow Dash openly gaped as she looked up at the tower.
It was massive. It looked like it once belonged to the Border Guard. It was gray in color and had a square shape. The four corners stood as high as the roof and it looked like it was impenetrable from land. It looked like the tower was used as some kind of watchtower.
Both of them flew over the wall towards an open window and Rainbow Blitz did a one eighty and kicked an approaching griffin on the face. The griffin was thrown back and hit another one behind him before the two of them were thrown out the window.
Both cyan pegasi briefly looked at each other and gave a nod before bringing their focus back at the approaching griffins and released a battle cry before intercepting them. There was a shuffle where both sides tried to get a hit on the other. Blitz and Dash were currently backed at a wall since both of them were not as experienced as the griffins. It was then one of the griffin's head was hit with a laser and a hole bore through it. The griffin fell with a thud as the other's turned their gaze towards the open window where the brown pegasus was currently standing, pointing his gun at another griffin.
One of the griffin's squawked at the brown pegasus and was about to tackle him when a laser hit it straight in the chest and, like the other one, fell with a thud on the floor. One by one, the brown pegasus expertly aimed his gun at the panicking griffins until all of them were dead, only leaving a panting cyan pegasus stallion standing protectively in front of an equally panting cyan mare.
"That was a close one." the brown pegasus said monotonously. He reached for some kind of device from his saddlebag and held it in front of his face. "Mayday, we are in need of assistance! I repeat, we are in need of assistance!" to his annoyance, there was no response.
"Help, we are in need of assistance! We are currently near the border between Ponytopolis and The Heart! We were ambushed by the griffins and I fear that their reinforcements are coming!"
To his relief, there was actually a reply. "Hello?! Anypony there?! This is Trixie!" the voice replied, much to the surprise of the two cyan pegasi listening in.
The brown pegasus only raised an eyebrow "Trixie? Is that you?"
There was static before another reply sounded from the strange device "Of course it's me! There is no time for explanations! You said something about griffins in the border right?"
The brown pegasus hesitated for a few moments before he raised the device once again "Yes, we are currently in need of assistance!"
"We're on our way! Hold on tight!" Trixie said before completely cutting off the connection between them.
The brown pegasus sighed as he sat on the floor. He suddenly felt tired from all the action that day.
It wasn't only a few minutes later when they heard a familiar squawked outside the tower. The brown pegasus shushed them as he crouched down on the floor and crawled his way towards the window. He peered outside and saw that they were now surrounded by more griffins, all of them circling around the tower, searching for them.
There was nothing they could do but wait for the reinforcements. He wished that they would arrive sooner.